CIO opinion
CIO OPINION
“
CIOS MUST BE
GIVEN GREATER INTERNAL
CONTROL OF THEIR
CHOSEN SOFTWARE,
ENABLING THEM TO
INNOVATE AND CONFIGURE
AT A PACE THAT MATCHES
THEIR NEEDS.
//////////////////
Andy Mack, Software Services Director at Echo Managed Services
CIO challenges in 2019:
The biggest obstacles and
how to overcome them
With CIOs looking
to deploy high-spec
intelligent software for
their businesses, Andy
Mack, Software Services
Director at Echo Managed
Services, is here to offer his
knowledge. As the creator
of multi-utility billing
software, Aptumo, he
talks to us about tackling
the biggest challenges of
the coming year and how
software vendors can
support CIOs to excel.
46
INTELLIGENTCIO
G
iven the speed at which
technology is transforming our
business landscape, it’s vital
that global and UK CIOs remain at the
forefront of innovation and consistently
add value to their organisation.
Indeed, a recent survey by Gartner
found that almost half (49%) of global
CIOs have already changed their
business models or are in the process
of changing them, highlighting the
increasingly vital and leading role they
must play.
Critically, innovation must be carried
out with a clear focus on business
outcomes, agility and improving the
customer experience, but this doesn’t
come without its challenges. Tightening
budgets, resourcing issues and legacy
system barriers will all be familiar issues
for today’s IT professional – particularly
those operating at C-suite level. Perhaps
an even bigger obstacle as we move
into 2019 are the systems and software
currently available to CIOs; much of
which falls woefully short in enabling
them to drive true Digital Transformation.
Easy integration, great usability and
client-led, empowered change are all
must-haves – but these can be extremely
difficult to find.
Software must grow with an
organisation’s strategy and enable – not
thwart – innovation. It’s therefore time
for change and for reliance on external
software vendors to shift.
With this in mind, let’s discuss some
of 2019’s biggest challenges and how
software vendors can support CIOs to
move forward with momentum.
www.intelligentcio.com